Messenger Flies Past Mercury in Preparation for Permanent Mission (1/2)

The unmanned spacecraft was launched by NASA in August, 2004. Messenger, which stands for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging, swooped within 199 kilometers Mercury, the smallest planet in the Universe that is also closest to the Sun.

Eric Finnegan is systems engineer for NASA's Messenger Mission.

Finnegan says Messenger made a nighttime approach toward Mercury at nearly 26,000 kilometers per hour. The planet's gravitational pull slowed the spacecraft by 8,000 kilometers per hour for its eventual descent into orbit around Mercury in 2011.

Finnegan says Messenger sent back preliminary" class="hjdict" word="preliminary" target=_blank>preliminary photos of the approach. He says the spacecraft will begin beam back more detailed imagery and data within the next day or two.

"We're very, very excited. We had a very successful flyby today, today we still be waiting for the next day or so to get down imagery but our initial indications flying by the planet using just radio beacon" class="hjdict" word="beacon" target=_blank>beacon information looks good."

Planetary scientists hope the $450 million mission will help them answer key questions about Mercury, a tiny planet with temperatures that swing between 315 degrees in the daytime to minus 180 degrees at night.

参考译文：

美国国家航天局（NASA）在2004年8月发射了一艘无人太空船。"信使号"（MESSENGER）就是"水星表面，空间环境，地质化学以及广泛搜所任务"的缩写，它将飞入宇宙中最小且离太阳最近的行星，199千米的水星。

Eric Finnegan是这次NASA"信使号"任务的系统工程师。

Finnegan说"信使号"将于夜间以时速26，000的速度抵达水星。由于星球引力的作用，会使太空飞船在2011年最终下降到水星轨道周围时的速度降为8000公里/小时。

Finnegan说"信使号"发回了该过程的原始图片。他说在未来的一、两天内，它将传回更多的详细图片和数据。

"我们非常，非常的兴奋。这次定点飞行很成功。今天，我们仍然需要再等待几天以记录图像，但是我们初期（证据）表明仅用无线电指标信息定点飞行该行星似乎是成功的。"

行星科学家希望这次4500万美元的任务可以帮助他们回答关于水星--温度变化幅度自日间的315度至夜间的零下180度的一颗极小的行星的一些关键问题。